Often, government oversight of resident care facilities is used to protect the residents of those facilities from abuse, lack of quality, and other environmental concerns. In certain cases, government oversight programs use government surveyors to gather information from a facility to identify areas of concern. These areas may be further investigated for non-compliance or other undesirable conditions. The investigations may result in issuance of citations to the facility.
While the government oversight programs may collect valuable types of information from resident care facilities, many have argued that certain programs involve large amounts of subjectivity, resulting in citations being issued with little predictability, objectivity, or consistency. Further, many of the government oversight programs provide little useful feedback to the cited facilities, making it difficult for the facilities to improve. Without more information and more predictable results, it may be difficult for facilities to take effective and efficient remedial measures and avoid future citations.
Thus, it may be desirable to provide nursing home managers with access to more information for use in making resource allocation determinations, particularly relating to quality improvements.